News

California Senator Leland Yee has introduced the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 (SB 602), with backing from the California Affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The law would bring a much-needed upgrade to match Californians' reading habits. Under SB 602 the government and other third parties would need a warrant or court order for access... Read More

California Senator Leland Yee has introduced the Reader Privacy Act of 2011 (SB 602), with backing from the ACLU of California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The law would bring a much-needed upgrade to match Californians' reading habits. Read More

Today, Senator Dick Durbin is holding a Senate Judiciary Sub-committee hearing on the civil rights violations endured by American Muslims. This timely hearing comes on the heels of a report by the New York Times revealing that the FBI is using its intelligence gathering powers, which were expanded significantly during the Bush years, to investigate thousands of people and groups without any factua... Read More

Today, Senator Dick Durbin is holding a Senate Judiciary Sub-committee hearing on the civil rights violations endured by American Muslims. This timely hearing comes on the heels of a report by the New York Times revealing that the FBI is using its intelligence gathering powers, which were expanded significantly during the Bush years, to investigate thousands of people and groups without any factua... Read More

The ACLU today appealed a ruling that the government can collect the private records of three Twitter users as part of its investigation related to WikiLeaks. The ruling further held that the users cannot learn which other Internet companies were ordered to turn over information about them to the government. Read More

A U.S. District Court Judge ruled yesterday that the California Department of Transportation's equal opportunity program for contracting businesses can continue its mission to ensure that minority and women-owned businesses have equal ground to compete for federal stimulus funds and other federal contracts. Read More

Concerned Californians from across the region gathered at the State Capitol on Monday, March 21, to urge the California Legislature to protect critical social services – including education programs and drug treatment – by cutting the Corrections budget. One simple reform would free up $450 million dollars. That's the amount California taxpayers spend to lock up adults who were convicted of non-vi... Read More

Today, California Assemblymember Tom Ammiano will introduce a comprehensive bill that tackles school bullying by providing California schools with specific tools to prevent and address the pervasive problem in order to create a safe school environment for all students. Read More

The American Civil Liberties Union submitted testimony today for Representative Peter King's congressional "radicalization" hearing objecting to the House Homeland Security Committee's scrutiny of the American Muslim community and its level of cooperation with government anti-terrorism efforts. Read More

The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Equality California, American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and Lambda Legal jointly filed an amicus brief on March 1 in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals asking the court to lift the temporary stay in the federal court challenge to Proposition 8. Read More

The ACLU of Northern California and Amnesty International USA will urge the San Francisco Police Commission at its meeting tonight to prioritize implementation of a new crisis intervention program instead of acquiring Tasers. Both groups point to the Commission's recent adoption of the "Memphis Model" of crisis intervention training for the police force as a crucial step that should be fully imple... Read More

Tenants will have the right to display political signs on any part of the premises of their rented homes or apartments if a bill, SB 337, introduced yesterday by Senator Christine Kehoe and backed by the ACLU passes in the California legislature and is signed by Governor Jerry Brown. Read More